As EL James's Fifty Shades of Grey becomes the bestselling title in British history, now is a good moment to pause and reflect on the magnificent achievement that is the "book" in all its formats – hardback, paperback and, of course, ebook.

With 5.3m copies sold since April, it may be too much to say that Fifty Shades alone is dragging the book trade out of the recession, but outside Christmas, this July was the strongest month for physical book sales since 2007.

Some have carped about the literary merit of James's bonkbusters, but commercially these titles could not have arrived at a better moment. The modern book trade has never felt more existentially challenged. Publishers are being sued in the US, and are under investigation in Europe, over alleged collusion in fixed-pricing; self-publishers (now known as indie authors) are outselling many traditionally published writers; while the ebook is threatening to wash away established players across the book ecosystem as Amazon's relentless march to the top continues.

But Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele, the over-sexed protagonists of James's trilogy, are spanking the bottom of despair. The books are not only helping to put a smile (as well as a blush) on many readers' faces, but equally so on that of James's publisher, Random House, and those booksellers selling copies of the printed books at an unheralded pace. The trilogy has grossed close to £50m in revenue. The number may be small when compared to a movie release, but that is just the beginning, as the books become films, and spark spinoff products.

Fifty Shades is just the latest reminder of what makes the publishing industry important. Every half-decade the book business comes up with a title that crystallises what it means to put an author in touch with a reader: a relationship that can be both bountiful and long-lasting.

We may not always know in advance where the bestsellers will come from, but don't mistake that for an accident. Modern publishers and booksellers are curators of a phenomenon and a desire to read stories that predates all of us.

Similarly, do not assume that digital alters this. The Kindle, an immersive reading platform, is Amazon's bestselling item, and has been for years. It is having a troubling yet invigorating impact on the publishing business. Kindle readers buy four times the number of books they did prior to owning a Kindle. Amazon rightly talks about a "reading renaissance".

In fact, it almost feels like a reformation. It is not just immersive reading that is on the rise, but also creative writing. The self-publishing drive (Penguin recently spent $100m on a company that sells services to DIY writers) shows that there are vast numbers of scribblers out there, just as there are vast numbers of amateur film-makers willing to make content available on YouTube. The fact that some of these indie writers become bestsellers shows that the talent pool is widening (as are the opportunities to find those readers).

Publishers have to keep the ball rolling. Reaching out to new readers, and converting them into regular book buyers is vital in this age of endless digital distraction. The Fifty Shades imitators will follow (Bared to You, by Sylvia Day, is already Penguin UK's fastest selling paperback for a decade, and is currently the fourth biggest title in the UK). But this autumn, with Super Thursday looming on 11 October, publishers will release new novels by the likes of JK Rowling, Lemony Snicket (aka Daniel Handler), and Zadie Smith, along with improbable titles such as Boobadoodle (look it up).